In the Summertime

two

We pass Mrs. Green on our way out of the classroom, and she apologizes for taking so long. Thankfully, she doesn't go into extreme detail like she did the last time it happened, which was two days ago, and Carson and June and I continue walking and talking.

It's not until I'm walking down the sidewalk by myself, Carson having already gone off to drive him and his little brother home and June staying after school for tutoring help, that I remember the discussion that happened in the classroom.

It just doesn't make any sense -- someone moved here. Someone uprooted themselves and the rest of their family and moved to some small town in the middle of nowhere that, as far as I'm aware, isn't on any popular maps at all. I've been doing my hardest to make sure I have the opportunity to leave this place, despite having lived here all my life, and... I don't understand why anyone would come here.

But that's probably something that's unique to me -- everyone else seems content to stay in Brynhaven for the rest of their lives.

I'm so caught up in my thoughts that, up until this point in time, I've been running on autopilot. The house where I live with my mother isn't far from the school -- it's almost all the way on the other side of town, sure, but it's not like the town is all that big to begin with -- so I walk home pretty much every day that June can't drive me home, like today.

Nothing about that is any sort of special, except my normal route, the one that takes the longest but is also the most scenic, takes me right down the street where the Johnsons live. Which means it takes me right down the street the new family has just moved into.

By the time I've realized that, it's too late; I'm already on the street. Turning around to take another route would be pointless and kind of stupid, too, so I stay on my path.

As I approach the Johnsons' house, I can't help the way my eyes slide over to the house across the street. There's a sleek, black car sitting in the driveway -- its engine is off, but its doors are wide open, and I can see relatively haphazard stacks of brown boxes filling the backseat, and there are more boxes over the edge. There are a couple of bigger boxes in the front lawn, some of them open and some of them not, and there isn't a moving truck in sight.

The front door is open, though I can't see anyone standing in the doorway and I'm too far away to see any further inside. I find myself wondering if the new family is all inside and has left their stuff strewn out, which, the more I think about it, is most likely what happened -- theft isn't really something that happens here in Brynhaven. Surprise, surprise.

"Oh, Avery! I thought you'd be taking the faster way home today."

My eyes move from the house belonging to the new family to the street in front of me, where Mrs. Johnson is standing.

She's smiling at me, her brown eyes crinkling at the sides, and strands of her hair -- light brown but streaked with grey -- flutter in the slight breeze that's passing through and providing relief from the almost oppressive humidity. It's cool outside, but the air is still heavy with moisture, one that makes June's hair frizzy if she's not vigilant with her hair-care.

I return her smile with a genuine one of my own. "Hi, Mrs. Johnson," I say. "Yeah, I took this way home today. How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know," She waves me a hand in the hair, "just helpin' the neighbors move in." She adds, with a wink, "Gotta be friendly and all that."

I nod my head like I understand what she means. "Yeah, definitely." Against my will, my eyes track their way over to the newly moved-into house. This could be a bit of a problem -- my curiosity has been piqued, and once that happens there's pretty much no way to turn it off. And that would not be good.